|
Main Index
|
| |
| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
|
|
|
| |
THE WISE MAN TELLS YOU
WHERE YOU HAVE FALLEN
AND WHERE YOU YET MAY FALL --
INVALUABLE SECRETS!
FOLLOW HIM, FOLLOW THE WAY.
LET HIM CHASTEN AND TEACH YOU
AND KEEP YOU FROM MISCHIEF.
THE WORLD MAY HATE HIM
BUT GOOD MEN LOVE HIM.
DO NOT LOOK FOR BAD COMPANY
OR LIVE WITH MEN WHO DO NOT CARE.
FIND FRIENDS WHO LOVE THE TRUTH.
DRINK DEEPLY.
LIVE IN SERENITY AND JOY.
THE WISE MAN DELIGHTS IN THE TRUTH
AND FOLLOWS THE LAW OF THE AWAKENED.
THE FARMER CHANNELS WATER TO HIS LAND.
THE FLETCHER WHITTLES HIS ARROWS.
AND THE CARPENTER TURNS HIS WOOD.
SO THE WISE MAN DIRECTS HIS MIND.
THE WIND CANNOT SHAKE A MOUNTAIN.
NEITHER PRAISE NOR BLAME MOVES THE WISE MAN.
HE IS CLARITY.
HEARING THE TRUTH,
HE IS LIKE A LAKE,
PURE AND TRANQUIL AND DEEP.
Knowledge is not knowledge. It has the appearance of knowledge, hence it deceives many. Knowledge is only information. It does not transform you; you remain the same. Your accumulation of information goes on growing. Rather than liberating you, it burdens you, it goes on creating new bondages for you.
The so-called man of knowledge is far more foolish than the so-called fool, because the fool at least is innocent. He is ignorant, but he has no pretensions of knowing -- that much truth is his. But the man of knowledge is in a far greater mess: he knows nothing but he thinks he knows. Without knowing, to believe that one knows is to remain forever rooted in ignorance.
Knowledge is a way for ignorance to protect itself -- and it protects itself very cunningly, very efficiently, very cleverly. Knowledge is the enemy although it appears as the friend.
This is the first step towards wisdom: to know that you don't know, to know that all knowledge is borrowed, to know that it has not happened to you, it has come from others, that it is not your own insight, your own realization. The moment knowledge is your own realization, it is wisdom.
Wisdom means that you are not a parrot, that you are a man, that you are not repeating others but expressing
|
|
|
|
| |